Youth team draw 1-1 at Swindon
Swindon Town 1 Oxford United 1
Football League Youth Alliance, Saturday 27th August
United’s under 18s were forced to settle for a point from their game against Swindon last weekend. Coaches Leon Blackmore-Such and Andy Whing were left slightly frustrated not to get all three points, as Leon told us:
“We emphasised that it was a derby, but most of the kids were pretty aware anyway! So there was a little buzz around it and we started the game brightly. Swindon are usually a side that like to keep possession and pass it around but they had changed a little bit so we needed to adjust and we did that well. The first half was quite even and end to end.
“We had more of the ball and more of the chances, with Malachi Napa looking bright and getting the ball off people to get us playing. But we didn’t create too many clear chances until Malachi got the ball 25 yards out on the turn and struck it well into the top left-hand corner for a good goal that he deserved for his play.
“Swindon didn’t cause us major concerns but then two or three individual decisions – not errors, just little decisions like which foot to use – led to Swindon getting an equaliser with a good finish, so it was 1-1 at half time.
“We were a bit disappointed not to be ahead at that stage but we asked for a bit more quality in the final third. The pitch was massive as well so we made a couple of adjustments to counter that and it led to a good second half where we had four or five opportunities and on another day one would definitely have gone in. We dominated the game but couldn’t get the breakthrough. We defended very well as a unit though and so the game ended up 1-1.
“We both said that it was a point away but we were disappointed not to get an away win because of the way we played. Credit to the boys for the performance and if we can just be sharper around the box and in our decision making then we would have won.”
United: Agboola, Carr, Carroll, Berry-Hargreaves, Chilcott, Hopkins, McReady, Heap, Hartley, Napa, Noel-Williams